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Keep Kids Fed Act of 2022
9/20/2023, 4:45 PM
Congressional Summary of S 2089
Burial Equity for Guards and Reserves Act of 2021
This bill prohibits the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) from establishing a condition for a cemetery grant that restricts the ability of a state to inter certain reservists (or their spouses and children) at a state-owned veterans' cemetery solely because such individuals are ineligible for burial in an open national cemetery.
Specifically, as a condition for grants, the VA cannot restrict the ability of a state to inter a
- member of a reserve component, the Army National Guard, or the Air National Guard who, while a member, was discharged or released from service under conditions other than dishonorable or whose death occurred under conditions other than dishonorable;
- member of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps of the Army, Navy, or Air Force whose death occurred under conditions other than dishonorable while a member; and
- spouse, minor child, or unmarried adult child of any member described above.
The VA is prohibited from (1) denying an application for a grant solely on the basis that the recipient state may use funds to expand, improve, operate, or maintain a veterans' cemetery in which interment of the specified individuals is allowed; and (2) enforcing certain conditions on grants for state veterans' cemeteries that were established before the date of enactment of this bill.
The bill also provides for plot allowances for the burial of veterans at cemeteries that allow the internment of individuals listed in the bill, including on trust land owned by or held in trust for a tribal organization.
